Re: [Foucault-L] Foucault v. Web 2.0

From: Thomas Lord <lord@xxxxxxx>

Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:06:19 -0700

Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] Foucault v. Web 2.0

On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 23:52 -0400, Nathaniel Roberts wrote:
> Thomas,
>
> Please note that Foucault died in 1984, not 1994. McInnerny's comments
> refer to 1984. But you are certainly right that lots of undergraduates were
> using the internet by 1994.

Fair enough. As points of curiosity, not arguing....

In 1984 I went to Johns Hopkins and got a first taste
of using the internet. In 1985 I transferred to
Carnegie-Mellon Univiersity and got a much larger taste
that involved the entire campus community. By 1987
not only had every undergrad been on the net for while
but there were controversial studies of online porn and
some of us were test subjects for the precursors of
what is today DSL. This was a cross-campus phenomenon
although not universal at all schools. My earliest
experiences go back to around 1983.

More importantly, the discourse around building the
thing (or something similar) and deploying it for hoi
poloi goes back long before that. An interesting
aspect of the way "web 2.0" is shaping up, to my mind,
is that it most resembles (with is centralized control)
some of the alternative visions to the Internet that
were being put forward (e.g., by Bell Telephone) in the
late 60s and early 70s.

-t

>
> Nate
>
> On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 7:55 PM, Thomas Lord <lord@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > So, sure - he didn't live to see the pervasive
> > implications of the Internet per se but a couple
> > of things:
> >
> > 1) He did live long enough to get a taste for what
> > computing and networking might bring (by decades)
> > hence my fishing for cites. That's why I asked.
> >
> >
> > 2) By 1994 (per Mr. McInnerny's comment) *lots* of
> > undergrads were using the Internet. Big time.
> >
> > I do have a distorted lens perspective of coming out of the
> > Carnegie Mellon University environment but at least there
> > and at quite a few other campuses - Internet access and use was
> > fairly ubiquitous almost a decade before that. The web
> > didn't quite yet exist although lots of people were trying
> > to get it started - but the 'net was in full swing on a bunch
> > of campuses.
> >
> > I appreciate both comments and any cites that might
> > crop up. I'm just fishing to see if there's some stuff
> > I wasn't aware of in his writings.
> >
> > -t
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 07:41 +1000, martin hardie wrote:
> > > yes I thought that Mr David
> > >
> > > But then maybe you have to jump to good old D&G ... eg Postscript on
> > control
> > > societies to continue the Foucault trail?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 28 May 2010 07:37, David McInerney <vagabond@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Given when he died I imagine there wasn't much to say.
> > > >
> > > > Back in 1984 people were still getting excited over the new AT MS-DOS
> > > > machines with two 5.25" floppy disks and even in 1987 I was informed
> > > > in hushed tones as a new employee about the amazing 20MB hard drive
> > > > that the big insurance company I worked for had installed and which
> > > > they were hoping to eventually scan and store all of the insurance
> > > > policies on! Even in 1994 the internet was a huge deal and only a
> > > > few people I knew had access to it, generally academics using
> > > > university infrastructure. I didn't know any undergrad students who
> > > > had used it.
> > > >
> > > > Back in 1984 it was people posting modem addresses in magazines and
> > > > communicating one-to-one as far as I can remember.
> > > >
> > > > So no I wouldn't expect anything in Foucault's work itself, but I'd
> > > > be interested to see what people have done with his work since to
> > > > discuss the matter
> > > >
> > > > D
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 28/05/2010, at 6:53 AM, Thomas Lord wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Did Foucault write anything about computing,
> > > > > software, networking, and so forth? His mode
> > > > > of analysis seems to have a lot of relevance
> > > > > to today's Internet but I'm wondering what he
> > > > > might have written directly about such technology.
> > > > >
> > > > > -t
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
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